How can I save a Stata dataset so that it can be read by a previous version of Stata?

The format sometimes changes between releases to allow for new features. This format change can cause problems when two colleagues are working on a project and one of them has not yet upgraded to the latest release. For example, when a Stata 7 user tries to open a Stata 8 dataset from a colleague, they are presented with an error,

        . use auto.dta
        file auto.dta not Stata format
        r(610);

There is, however, an easy solution to this problem. Since Stata 4, StataCorp has provided a way to save your dataset so that it can be read by the previous version of Stata. That is, you can save Stata 10 datasets so that they can be read by Stata 8 or Stata 9 (Stata 8 and Stata 9 share the same dataset format), Stata 8 or Stata 9 datasets can be saved so that they can be read by Stata 7, Stata 7 datasets can be saved so that they can be read by Stata 6, and so on down to Stata 4 datasets, which can be saved so that Stata 3.1 can read them.

Saving Stata 10 datasets so they can be read by Stata 8 or Stata 9

To save a Stata 10 dataset so that it can be used in Stata 8 or Stata 9, use the saveold command.

        . saveold auto10
        file auto10.dta saved

Saving Stata 9 datasets so they can be read by Stata 8

Stata 8 and Stata 9 datasets have the same format. Therefore, a Stata 9 dataset can be used in Stata 8 with no problems or extra work.

The only issue related to this is that Stata 9 allows value labels to be up to 32,000 characters long. If Stata 8 tries to read a Stata 9 dataset with value labels that exceed the Stata 8 limit (244 for Stata/SE; 80 for Stata Intercooled), Stata 8 will ignore those labels and read the rest of the dataset.

Saving Stata 8 or Stata 9 datasets so they can be read by Stata 7

To save a Stata 8 or Stata 9 dataset so that it can be used in Stata 7, use the saveold command.

        . saveold auto7
        file auto7.dta saved

Saving datasets from Stata versions 4 to 7 so they can be read by the previous version

To save a Stata 4, 5, 6, or 7 dataset so that it can be read by the previous version, use the save command with the old option.

        . save auto6, old
        file auto6.dta saved

Please note that the old option in Stata 7 will not automatically truncate long variables or label names. This must be dealt with in one of two ways. You can either rename the variables and labels by hand or use Stat/Transfer to translate the datasets. The second suggestion is very handy if you have a large number of variables.

Also, if any of your variables have value labels and the name of the value label is longer than 8 characters, you must either drop or rename those value labels.

        . label list
        origin:
                  0 Domestic
                  1 Foreign

        . label save origin using mylabel.do
        file mylabel.do saved

This command will produce a do-file called mylabel.do with the following commands:

        -------------------------------------------------mylabel.do
        label define origin 0 `"Domestic"', modify
        label define origin 1 `"Foreign"', modify
        -------------------------------------------------mylabel.do